WARREN ELLIS is a graphic novelist and author of the NYT best-selling novel GUN MACHINE. His graphic novel GLOBAL FREQUENCY is being developed for television by Jerry Bruckheimer and FOX. He is the writer of the graphic novel RED, adapted into the film starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. His next book is NORMAL from FSG.

…just imagine being killed for a six-minute fuck recorded on a cellphone. To say that the punishment is disproportional to the offense is an understatement. Certainly it sends a frightening message to Kurdish youths. You can practically hear them saying, â€œWe have sex because we are brave, not because we are lustful…â€

I have no problem with people having faith as long as their beliefs aren’t bullied over others. One thing I have noticed though: it seems the more secure people are financially or just in general the less of a role religion seems to play in their lives. Odds are if you are dirt poor and/or completely unhappy you will see Jesus in the frost on your window and he will tell you to blow up an Abortion clinic. It comes from a lack of feeling in control of your life. Yet, when you are solvent and pretty damned happy, not even a crowd of screaming bible-thumpers can ever get you to go to a church/temple/mosque/scientology prison.

The ones you REALLY have to look out for though? Those that are rich, happy, AND religious zealots. Odds are…they want to take over the world and are probably a little crazy to boot.

I met a young and optimistic young Libertarian from Chicago while I was in Istanbul. He was on his way to Mosul to pursue a job. We all told him he was fucked, and he said, “No, I’m going to the north. Kurdistan is okay.” At that point, a girl took his picture with her cell phone so she could prove to people that she had met him when his bloody, severed head was broadcast on Al-Jazeera.

Might I note again that he was young and optimistic? Spoke no language other than English? And that he was a Libertarian? Which is to say, stupid.

It’s entirely possible to be a Libertarian and be a completely straight-laced, no-vices, which is to say, dull, person. (In fact, it’s possible to simultaneously be a Libertarian and a Muslim — http://www.minaret.org) So long as he keeps his mouth shut about politics and respects the local customs, he should be in no more danger than any other American in that fucked-up place — especially if he was going to work for a major corporation, which tend to have segregated facilities set up for Westerners to live and play.

There was a bit on NPR last week about the increasing, ah, prudification of southern Iraq. The Shiite religious authorities are micromanaging things like produce displays; one grocer was killed because he propped up some celery near a couple of tomatoes.

And shepherds are required to cover up their goats’ genetalia because the sight of them might inflame sexual desire.

Well, that is it…The young Kurdish generation is a total departure from some traditional values that existed..(i would not say positive or negative), but certainly struggling between past and present value..Re..definitions..
Sadly the society in general could not tolerate that..as many places in Middle East..
It is really tragic to hear such a news…